Bentley pushed Lancaster to take ‘care of business’

Lancaster coach Dugan Bentley believes in telling his wrestlers the truth with a positive twist.

“It’s a balance of being honest with them but not selling them short,” Bentley said. “I would never tell a kid he’s going to be a fourtime state champ if I think the best he’ll ever be is a state qualifier. But if I think he can be a state qualifier then certainly I would tell him my goal for him is to be a state champion.”

Lancaster had seven state qualifiers en route to winning the district, an achievement that helped Bentley become The Dispatch All-Metro coach of the year. The Gales also placed three wrestlers on the Dispatch All-Metro team.

“These are kids who thought they had potential and now are reaching their potential,” Dugan said. “How many kids actually reach their potential in sports? Our kids, at least in wrestling, we have gotten them to maximize their potential, and it showed up at districts.”

Lancaster already had a solid foundation in place when Dugan arrived from Beachwood High School four years ago. The Groveport graduate, who finished state runnerup at 119 pounds in 1998 before embarking on a successful career at Ashland University, simply began building on what already had been established.

“What I present to them would always be little bit more than what they think they’re capable of,” he said of motivating his wrestlers. “In the end, we want our kids to overachieve. As a team I’d like to see our name up on the (state tournament) board.”

The Gales were expected to be good this season, but still managed to overachieve.

“Coming into this year there were different rankings where we were put at the top of the district,” Bentley said. “Essentially, we took care of business. Everybody took care of their job.”

Olentangy Liberty joins Lancaster with three wrestlers on the All-Metro team, selected by district coaches.

Sophomore Logan Agin at 106 pounds, freshman Micah Norwood (126) and senior Derrick Bowman (220) represent Lancaster, with sophomore Blake Saito (132), junior Carson Kharchla (170) and senior Trevor Lawson (182) representing Liberty.

Central Crossing senior Jaden Maddox made the first team for the fourth consecutive year, Lawson for the third consecutive year. Agin and Jared Ball of Hilliard Darby (195) both repeated as first-teamers.

District coaches will decide on the Casey Fredericks Wrestler of the Year award after the state tournament.